Two weeks in United Kingdom

England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

More information such as when and what you want to see would be useful.

First trip there?
If so, focus on England.

Can you be more specific as to what you’re looking to see or do? I love the north of England, but your interests may be quite different from mine.

We’ve been to London and done the usual tourist sites but that was in 1986. We went to Bath, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham, the War Room, Westminster and St. Paul, the Tower, Stratford on Avon, Salisbury Cathedral, Warwick Castle, Coventry Cathedral, saw a show in the West End, Stonehenge. Our question is, if we take a two week vacation are we trying to do too much if we go to other parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and even Ireland? We think we are trying to do too much. If you were prioritizing how to spend your time and I’ve never been to any of those other countries what would you do? Thanks for any guidance!

We have visited the British Isles several times. The last time in 2017 we spent four weeks and just covered South Wales and England, not even going to London or east or southeast of London.

Don't try to do it all in two weeks.

I suggest starting with London and the South of England and perhaps South Wales.

Great places to visit are Canterbury, Cambridge, Windsor Castle (for sure), Oxford, Winchester, Blenheim Palace, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Avebury, Bath, Stratford Upon Avon, Cardiff, (so many great castles in Wales), Tenby and St. David's in Wales.

Thank you for your suggestions!!

I think South Wales(Cardiff is easy train from London), York and Scotland.

Thank you, cala!

With two weeks, stick to one country. It doesn’t really matter which since they are all worth visiting for a much longer period of time.

I’m having fun taking everyone’s suggestions and tracking them on my map. Thank you!

You need to figure out what you want to see. Don't go all over the place as that takes time. Pick one country or area and stick to it.

I can't even start to suggest where to go as I have been all over Great Britain and will keep going back for more.

But for two weeks I might focus on:

1) Scotland

2) Lake District/Liverpool/Chester/Wales

3) Southern England from Canterbury across to Cornwall

4) Central England including the areas between the Cotswolds and Yorkshire.

Remember to fly open jaw if you go to more than one country.

When are you travelling? Are you prepared to hire a car?

In 2 weeks, you could cover London, York and Edinburgh by train. I prefer north Wales to southern Wales generally, although St David’s is worthwhile.

Do you want to see mainly cities or the countryside? If you want something more rural, combine London with the New Forest or the Scottish Highlands or if you want castles, visit Kent/Sussex. Northumberland offers a fantastic coastline and Holy Island, Hadrian’s Wall and Durham are nearby.

You can easily spend the whole 2 weeks in any of the 4 countries, but there is less to see in Northern Ireland in comparison to the other three.

This is exactly what my husband and I did with our 8 yr old son last summer for two weeks:
fly into London and bus to Bath, rent car to Cotswolds, Conwy North Wales (stayed Llandudno), Edinburgh, day trip to St Andrews. Turned in car at Edinburgh train station and went to York then visited London. It was aggressive, but awesome.

RS folks always come through with helpful suggestions and advice! We appreciate it and are exploring the various possibilities. 👍🏻

It would help to know your interests. We can make more 'focused' recommendations then. Personally, I LOVE Scotland. Depending on where you are flying from you could fly into London, spend 2 or 3 days (or more) then train to York for 2 nights, then train to Edinburgh for 2 or 3 nights, then train to Aviemore (in the Cairngorm Mts.) for several nights (this is especially good if you are interested in Scotch Whisky as there are lots of excellent distilleries to visit in that area) then train to Inverness for anywhere from 3 to 5 nights, then either train back to London or Edinburgh or Manchester to fly home or fly out of Inverness. You could do day trips from any of these bases. from London- Bath, Cardiff Wales, Canterbury, Dover, Winchester, etc. From Edinburgh- Stirling, and others. From Aviemore- whisky distilleries, Blair Athol castle and town, walking/hiking, canoeing and horseback riding on Rothmurchie estate, local microbrewery tour, etc. From Inverness- cruise on Loch Ness and Urquhart castle, cruise on the forth for wale, dolphin and puffin watches, long day trip to Orkney, Isle of Sky and Elean Donnan castle, Glen Coe, etc.

We've done similar trips many times (more than 40). Feel free to private message me if you have more questions.
You could also cut out some of the time in Scotland and train from either Aviemore or Inverness (or Glasgow if you prefer) to the Snowdonia area of Wales. It is another lovely area. But it is a LONG train ride.

Toni, thank you - these are very helpful!